Staunching the north's slide into chaos doesn't require the same investment as it would in the south and east. But the consequences of inaction are just as severe. If we can't at least preserve the local government's sovereignty, then the north's downward slide can only continue, adding a new front in our efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan -- and a new complication for our hopes one day to leave it.
If the Iranian President was less than successful today in the first of his talks at the United Nations, he could console himself that he got his talking points out through the US and "Western" media.
I guess The New York Times should at least get credit for recognising what was going on:
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran ran through his standard talking points at his annual gathering with American journalists on Tuesday — denying that dissidents languish in jail or that economic sanctions were biting, and rejecting the idea that Tehran deserves anything less than a gold star for its nuclear inspection record.
This does not mean, however, that the Times interrogated the talking points, you know, by offering any consideration of the political prisoners. Instead, the Times is carried away because Ahmadinejad "embroidered his remarks with a little fresh bluster". And what dazzled them?
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 11:07